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Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom
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| By Jerusalem Newswire January 27, 2005 |
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The temporary terrorist ceasefire being brokered by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is "a ticking bomb which will blow up" in Israel's face, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told Israel Radio Thursday.
Speaking by phone from Washington, Shalom warned that accepting a truce with the terrorists would be a mistake on Israel's part.
"Whoever thinks a halt [in violence] is the right thing, is mistaken," the foreign minister said.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, meanwhile, told reporters Wednesday he was "very satisfied" with the steps being taken by Abbas.
Shalom explained that the terror groups would use the current period of relative quiet, during which Israel is expected to halt its defensive military operations, to rebuild and prepare for the next massacre of Jewish men, women and children.
"You cannot take a ceasefire as a long-range goal," while allowing the terror groups to "preserve their infrastructure."
Doing so, Shalom cautioned, would "bring about a situation in which at a time [the terrorists] choose they can carry out one terrorist attack or a series of terror attacks, which will bring down this whole [peace] process and send it to hell."
The bloody collapse of Abbas's efforts as predicted by Shalom appeared very close indeed Wednesday, when members of the PA leader's own Fatah organization threatened to renew hostilities against Israelis.
Abu Mohammed, a spokesman for the Al Aqsa Brigades, told a news conference in Gaza City that his group demanded that Israel immediately cease all military activity aimed as defending the nation's Jews, or face a new wave of terror.
The ultimatum came just hours after IDF troops shot dead a wanted Hamas terror boss as he attempted to evade arrest in the Samarian town of Kalkilya.
Abbas publicly backed the Brigades, insisting Israel stop hunting down terrorists, regardless of what intelligence indicates they are planning.
"They have to stop these operations so as not to ruin our efforts," Ha'aretz quoted the PLO chief as saying.
Later in the day, Israeli officials told CNN the Sharon government had decided to ease up on operations in areas where PA security forces proved to be effectively enforcing calm.
On Thursday morning, Israel Radio reported that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had agreed to a PA-backed plan to allow any wanted terrorists still free at the time of IDF withdrawals from Arab towns to be incorporated into the official PA security forces.
Doing so will allow Abbas to fulfill his campaign pledge to protect the killers from Israeli justice.
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